Is this how you normally sell?

Many people ask me, "How did you get into training?" Over 20 years ago, I had a company selling manufactured products. One day, my accounting firm invited me in to present one of their products. After the presentation, I spoke to a named partner and I asked them, "Is this how you normally sell?" He said, "Yeah. It was pretty good wasn't it?" I said, "Gee, I think it needs work."

After thinking it over for a week, I gave him a call and I said, "You need to hire me to teach you and your six partners how to sell." Well they liked some of my ideas, so I was invited in for a meeting. This is kind of how the conversation went. "So Andy, have you ever done this before for an accounting firm?" "No." "Do you have any testimonial letters from successful clients?" "No." "Have you ever done this at all for anybody at any time?" "No." "Do you have some curriculum you could show us so we have an idea of what this would look like?" "No." "Then what makes you think you can do this?" "Well, I saw your presentation. This is how you presented. This is how you could present it. I could fill the gap."

They were interested in my ideas, but they didn't know what to do with me because this was crazy. Most CPAs, Accountants, are conservatists. This was wild, out of the box. One day they took me on a sales call. My assignment was to listen, to zip my lips. Not say anything. If I could learn something about the context, maybe I could bake more pointed recommendations. I listened to the presentation by two CPA partners for about an hour, and then I felt I had to say something. I raised my hand and asked the owner of the business, "Can I ask a couple of questions?" The CPA Accountants melted because I opened my mouth. The owner said, "Sure. What are your questions?" I asked two questions and I closed the sale. About a month later, I was in the sales training business.

This story illustrates the principle of bold vision, bold behavior. The bold vision was teaching accountants how to sell. The bold behavior was doing something I had never done before where there was no proof I could do it successfully. By the way, if you want to know what the two questions were, give me a call.